Epic wants Unreal Engine 4 to release close to next-gen launch

Epic’s Mike Capps has said the firm’s next iteration of Unreal Engine will be released closer to next-gen consoles, than when Unreal 3 was released.

According to Capps, the firm also wants the next version of the tech to contain a “vertical solution” for both mobile and triple-A projects.

“In the past few years I think we’ve learned a lot about our technology and how it works for indie studios,” he told Develop in an interview. “How our tech works for iPhone games, for high-end triple-A studios and for a couple of guys who make a cool UDK game over the summer.

“We’re going to apply all these lessons we’ve learned with Unreal Engine 4, and I think you’re going to see a lot of difference with UE3 within the first six months from launch.”

Capps also thinks a year from a console’s launch is “perfectly fine for releasing a game,” but not when it comes to releasing new tech.

“We need to be there day one or very early,” he said. “That’s my primary focus.

“For us as a game-maker, we aren’t keen on shipping games day one because there’s not much of an install-base, or at least not one as big as it’s going to be. But with engines, that’s a different story. We want to deliver our tech as early as possible even though our first big marquee game might not be on there for twelve or even twenty-four months from a console’s launch.”